§ Mr. HUGH LAWasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that many of the inhabitants of the district of Termon, county Donegal, are obliged to travel nine miles to Milford in search of medical relief, and, after bringing the dispensary doctor to their homes, are frequently obliged to 832W return to Milford a second time to obtain the medicine ordered by him for the sick; and whether it can be arranged that the dispensary doctor shall attend in Termon at least one day in each week?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Medical Officer of the Milford and Kilmacrenan dispensary district resides at Milford, and poor persons from any parts of the dispensary district who require his services urgently at their homes must send for him to Milford. The dispensary district is of average size and population for a rural dispensary district (area, 28,658 acres; population, 4,242), and the Medical Officer attends twice weekly at Milford dispensary and once a week at a depot at Kilmacrenan. The electoral Division of Termon has an area of 11,086 acres and a population of 1,264 persons. The village of Termon is about two miles from Kilmacrenan and between seven and eight miles from Milford, but there are, of course, outlying portions of the division which are most distant. Patients belonging to the Termon Division can, therefore, procure their supplies of medicine either at Milford or Kilmacrenan, whichever may prove to be more convenient; and there has been no complaint to the Local Government Board or officially to the hoard of guardians as to the want of a dispensary depot for the division, nor has there been any application or proposal made for the establishment of such a depot. The medical officer would be entitled to a reasonable increase of salary in the event of a depot being established.